Efficient electrocatalysis of cathodic oxygen reduction with Pt-Fe alloy catalyst in microbial fuel cell

To develop efficient and cost-effective cathodic electrocatalyst for microbial fuel cell (MFC), this study investigates the feasibility of Pt-Fe alloy immobilized on carbon material for electrochemical oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). By performing cyclic voltammogram tests, the carbon supported Pt-Fe alloy (C/Pt-Fe) exhibited an improved catalytic activity toward ORR compared to both C/Fe and C/Pt catalyst. Based on 0.5 mg/cm(2) Pt utilization, the maximum power density of 1097.6 +/- 51.2 mW/m(2) produced from the MFC with C/Pt-Fe catalyst was 6.5% higher than that of 1030.4 +/- 47.8 mW/m(2) obtained from the MFC using C/Pt catalyst. The Pt-based alloy proposed herein suggests a promising approach to efficient ORR of MFC, which makes it more technically and economically viable to recover electrical energy from biomass materials. Crown Copyright (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.